The festival took place at the Watkins Glen International speedway in Watkins Glen, New York, and the team used the infrastructure of the speedway, notably a massive scaffolding behind bleachers that overlooked the racetrack, to create the installation. To mask the bleachers and to contribute to the “vintage sci-fi” aesthetic of the festival, the team devised a ‘drive-in theatre’ scenario, transforming the bleachers into a 183 foot-long projection screen. Silver cars spotted the field as ghostly light sculptures that added a mysterious and immersive quality to the drive-in feeling and provided the ambience of an abandoned post-apocalyptic theatre during the daytime.
The “secret set” came to life at the Drive-In late on Saturday night as Moment Factory VJs played visual counterpoint to Phish’s fully improvised nearly hour-long jam. Working from a toolbox of visual assets and blending them in our VJ software, we layered custom video and stills with generative content. At one exciting moment, the band played to a giant moon moving slowly across the screen, responding with a bold rhythm. We were thrilled to join Phish in this unique collaboration, going back to our VJ roots with a live show environment.
